This document provides tips for product managers to maintain roadmap discipline and prevent influential clients from changing the roadmap. It recommends having a roadmap, a transparent roadmap process, backing from leadership, an advisory board including influential customers, and a professional services team to handle client-specific work separately from the core roadmap. The overall message is that a well-defined process helps product managers make the best decisions for all customers rather than catering to requests from any single client.

1. Protecting Your Roadmap From
Influential Clients
Jordan Bergtraum
Product Management Consultant
September 2018

2. 10+ years of B2B SaaS experience7 years leading Product Management teamsEducation, Pharma, Legal, and Facilities ManagementTwice introduced Product Management to an organizationOwned market research, product marketing, product
design, product delivery
Who is Jordan Bergtraum?

3. What to expect from this presentation?
How to better maintain roadmap discipline to prevent
influential clients from wrecking your roadmap

4. Reality check!
Offer to research the ideaYour Boss is the bossDon’t risk your job to protect your roadmap

5. # 1
Have a roadmap

6. Have a roadmap
Without a roadmap, its easy to change the route
Clients may ask for anything, not the best thing
Often your roadmap is better

7. # 2
Have a roadmap process

8. Have a roadmap process
No process, no defense
You’re building a platform for all your customers
Based on facts & data, not opinions

9. # 3
Have a transparent roadmap
process

10. Have a transparent roadmap process
From who do you get input
How you assess value
How you collect data
Some of the roadmap is for acquisition

11. # 4
Have the backing of your
leadership

12. Have the backing of your leadership
Get your leaders to empower you…
….not over-ride you
Ask them to defer to you
Ask them not to say “yes”

13. # 5
Advisory Boards

14. Advisory Boards
Create one
Include influential customers
Expose them to democracy and a process
Expose them to the needs of other customers

15. # 6
Professional Services

16. Professional Services
Set aside resources for customer-specific work
Charge for this work
Integrated into your PM process

17. Professional Services
Keeps big customers happy
Stabilizes the roadmap
Increase revenue

18. Professional Services
Easier sell if you line up customers first
Reassign team to core if work slows

19. Summary
Have a roadmap
Have a process
Be transparent
Have an Advisory Board
Stand up a Professional Services team

20. Jordan Bergtraum
Product Management Consultant
September 2018
Thank You!